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Singer-man
COMMON SENSEJOHN MAXWELL
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Crackle! Pop! Snap!
I'm not talking about cereal. That would be snap, crackle, pop. Everybody knows that.
Crackle! Pop! Snap!
Watching John McCain in action reminds me of Tom Paxton's sixties song about the marvellous toy that
JOHN MAXWELL
".went "Zip" when it moved,
And "Pop" when it stopped,
And, "Whirrr" when it stood still.
I never knew just what it was
And I guess I never will.
Coupling McCain with Alaska's toxic termagant presents a fairly terrifying vision for the rest of the world. It's a far way from John Kennedy's promise four decades ago that the US would be a friend of people seeking freedom, to be a friend to the poor and weak. McCain and Palin present a fundamentalist and revanchist face to the world, promising an even rougher ride than George Bush.
As I said eight years ago, when the United States elects a president they are also electing a kind of chief spokesman for much of a world with aspirations light years away from the parochial vision of civilisation imagined by Bush, Cheney, McCain and Palin. For the rest of us, the US president, we hope, will be a singer-man for the world, one who embodies and expresses the deepest aspirations of people for liberty and dignity. Alas, we haven't often had that, but it is why an English worldwide poll has found that the world wants Obama to win. The preference is almost 100% across countries as disparate as Norway and Saudi Arabia.
Almost all the public opinion surveys conducted in the US over the past few weeks show the Republican ticket steadily losing ground to the Democrats - Obama and Biden. One website is devoted entirely to analysing electoral polling by all the reputable pollsters. (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/)
According to them, the odds on Obama being the next president were better than 90% as of this last week, and their projection was that he would win nearly 350 electoral votes with at least 52% of the popular vote
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...INGER_MAN_.asp
COMMON SENSEJOHN MAXWELL
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Crackle! Pop! Snap!
I'm not talking about cereal. That would be snap, crackle, pop. Everybody knows that.
Crackle! Pop! Snap!
Watching John McCain in action reminds me of Tom Paxton's sixties song about the marvellous toy that
JOHN MAXWELL ".went "Zip" when it moved,
And "Pop" when it stopped,
And, "Whirrr" when it stood still.
I never knew just what it was
And I guess I never will.
Coupling McCain with Alaska's toxic termagant presents a fairly terrifying vision for the rest of the world. It's a far way from John Kennedy's promise four decades ago that the US would be a friend of people seeking freedom, to be a friend to the poor and weak. McCain and Palin present a fundamentalist and revanchist face to the world, promising an even rougher ride than George Bush.
As I said eight years ago, when the United States elects a president they are also electing a kind of chief spokesman for much of a world with aspirations light years away from the parochial vision of civilisation imagined by Bush, Cheney, McCain and Palin. For the rest of us, the US president, we hope, will be a singer-man for the world, one who embodies and expresses the deepest aspirations of people for liberty and dignity. Alas, we haven't often had that, but it is why an English worldwide poll has found that the world wants Obama to win. The preference is almost 100% across countries as disparate as Norway and Saudi Arabia.
Almost all the public opinion surveys conducted in the US over the past few weeks show the Republican ticket steadily losing ground to the Democrats - Obama and Biden. One website is devoted entirely to analysing electoral polling by all the reputable pollsters. (http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/)
According to them, the odds on Obama being the next president were better than 90% as of this last week, and their projection was that he would win nearly 350 electoral votes with at least 52% of the popular vote
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum...INGER_MAN_.asp
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